Hele I Ka Nahele (Walk in the Woods)
by Empress Akitla
Summary: Two of Hawaii's finest get a taste of the Rocky Mountains and all they have to offer. Snow, high elevation, the cold, animals, more snow. Oh, and did we mention an avalanche? One shot.


**For those of you familiar with my current writing style, if this seems a bit off from that it's because I wrote this 2015. It's been sitting on my flash drive collecting dust for no apparent reason. All I did was add the last few sentences and do a typo check. And had Phoebe beta read it.**

 **Enjoy this ridiculous little one shot!**

* * *

"This is your fault."

At first Steve wasn't sure if anybody had actually spoken, even though the voice was like a sharp knife slicing through the soft silence of falling snow. He only wondered if it was spoken aloud or in his head because he had lost track of when Danny was talking and when he wasn't. He had become so numb, he hadn't even realized it had been quiet for nearly half an hour.

"My fault?" Steve questioned.

He stopped and turned around to face his partner. Danny glared at him with half-lidded eyes, arms firmly crossed over his heavily coated chest and hands tucked into his armpits. His cheeks and nose were extremely rosy red, eyes shining in the strange evening light, and he was still shivering. Steve had a feeling he didn't look much better, but he wasn't shivering anymore.

" _My_ fault?" he repeated.

"Yes, _your_ fault. This is all _your_ fault, everything bad that happens to me is _your_ fault," Danny griped.

Steve shook his head in exasperation and started to trudge forward again.

"If you would have just waited for the storm to clear out, then we could've gotten our guy without having this problem," Danny continued, suppressing another shiver.

The current problem being they were way out of their element. Danny was a born and bred city boy, preferring skyscrapers and streets over massive spruce trees that dumped snow on your head with no warning or the barely visible frozen streams that proved to be not quite as frozen as they looked. And it was so isolated out here.

Steve could handle the whole lost in the wilderness thing with perfect finesse. Surviving in a cave in Afghanistan in the blistering heat or for weeks in the humid forests of the Congo was something he had done before. But what was getting him at the moment was the cold. They had gone from 78 degrees Fahrenheit in Honolulu two days ago to the awesome temperature of 25 degrees Fahrenheit in the Rockies today.

And the 10,000 foot elevation was killer.

Not that they had actually been thinking about any of that when they had chased down their guy in their loaned chained up truck. Well, Steve hadn't been thinking straight apparently, because Danny was the one that had made sure they were both stocked up on coats, gloves, hats, socks, and waterproof boots. That was something he was grateful for now. His heavy winter coat had kept the chill out fairly well and his gloves kept his fingers from becoming frostbitten.

Now, here, as they were hiking he was thinking of everything he _should've_ done to prevent this. Let the storm pass for starters.

"You'd think the clouds would run out of snow, but they never do," Danny commented from behind him, seemingly having read his thoughts, before coughing fitfully and sucking in what sounded like painful breaths.

"You okay, Danny?" Steve stopped again, turning to look at his partner.

Danny shook his head, leaning against a bare aspen tree for support. "No, I'm not okay, Neanderthal."

Steve winced.

Their guy had ditched his truck and ran out into the woods and they followed suite. It was an effort to follow him through the nearly knee high snow, both of them huffing within a minute. They cornered the guy finally at the outcropping of the aspen grove, coming up on him as he stared out across the gap of the valley. Yelling 'freeze' was almost too funny because it was already so much colder than home.

Without warning the entire lip they were standing on gave way down the sloped hill into the valley below. It wasn't quite an avalanche, but it was enough to drag them all the way down, smacking against trees and rocks as they went.

Waking up was kind of a sparse memory. Steve remembered staring up at the gray sky and watching individual snowflakes float down onto his eyelashes. It was a high possibility that he would've laid like that a while longer if he hadn't have heard a groan pierce the eerie silence that the falling snow created. While he was battered and bruised he completely ignored every prick of pain in order to check on his partner. If he could find him, that was.

Looking around the white landscape revealed little. He stood up and shook the snow from his back and shoulders. There! Legs stuck out of the snow at a painful angle against a young yet thick spruce tree.

Steve high stepped over there, swallowing thickly. The unmoving nature of the legs and awkward placement most certainly meant serious injury or death. He'd never forgive himself for dragging Danny out here and for taking Grace's father away.

He shoveled handfuls of the freshly disturbed white powder away and almost laughed in relief. It was their suspect. Dead. Looked like his neck had been snapped when he hit the tree.

He frowned. He had heard a groan. Standing up again, he did another careful scan of the sloped hillside and picked out a dark splotch a little higher up the side from where he and the suspect had ended up. Heaving for breath, gritting his teeth, and forcing his legs to work, he plowed through the snow uphill.

Steve bit back his sharp inhale. Danny was half buried and tangled up against a few aspen saplings. He dropped to his knees and pressed two fingers under his jaw. A steady pulse thumped under them. With a thankful sigh, he dug his partner the rest of the way out of the snow, checking for injuries with gentle touches. He could have a spinal injury or internal bleeding and he would hate to exasperate that.

"Danny," Steve tapped the side of his head lightly. "Danny, can you hear me?"

He came to, squinting against the snowflakes in his eyes. "Did you get the license of the truck that hit me?"

Steve chuckled and smirked, knowing that Danny couldn't be too hurt if he was joking like that. "Not a truck, but now you can add falling down a hill to your list of injuries."

"I'd call it more of a mountain," Danny grumbled while craning his head up to see where they'd started. He shifted uncomfortably as he sat up with a grimace.

"Easy, you could've hurt something," Steve helped him up, brows furrowing as his partner grunted in pain.

"Think I just twisted my knee," Danny rubbed his leg through his wet jeans and made a face, inhaling slowly. "And bruised my everything."

Steve shook his head. He may have bruised everything, but at least he was still functioning.

"Hey, babe, you still with me?"

Steve blinked as Danny tossed a handful of snow at him in the here and now. He furrowed his brows at his partner's concerned look.

"How's your knee?" he asked with a shake of his head, trying to clear out the encroaching numbness.

"It's seen better non-snowy, non-rolling down cliffs, and non-hiking for hours kinds of days," Danny said. He winced as he inhaled a shuddering breath. "I'm more concerned about you now."

"I'm fine," Steve assured.

"You didn't hear me a couple seconds ago while I was talking to you, telling you everything that was wrong with me and I haven't seen you shiver at all in the past hour," Danny coughed again, but still maintained his irritated face to redirect it up at his partner when he was done. "Aren't you cold?"

"Not so much," he shrugged.

Danny narrowed his eyes at him. He wasn't an idiot and Steve certainly wasn't in the dark as to what was going on, either. He had been very cold for the first few hours of their never ending hike. And then he just wasn't.

"It's okay. I'm fine, okay? We should keep moving," Steve knew that if they stopped now blood would slow in its pumping to their extremities and frostbite would have an opening to get into their fingers and toes.

"Where? Where are we walking to? We've been walking for five hours, Steve," Danny wheezed and gestured to the glittering forest around them. "And we're still lost."

"That road we were on crossed this valley at some point, remember? If we can find it we can follow it back to the main road. Maybe we'll have cell service down there," he said and offered a hand to him. "Come on. We're going to be fine."

With a resigned sigh Danny took the offered hand and stood up straight from the aspen tree, making a face as his knee protested. They set off again in the gray evening light, breath fogging the crisp air and lungs not quite getting enough oxygen.

* * *

Diamonds. Millions of them crunching underfoot. Billions of them twinkling on the bent boughs of the spruce trees. Trillions of them all over the ground in the knee high snow. And they were falling from the sky continuously. Cold, sparkly, frosty diamonds collecting everywhere around them.

Danny shook his head, blinking in the dimming light. Lack of oxygen was definitely starting to toy with his brain, even though he had to admit that the snow did glitter with a certain diamond like quality. Looking at the forest around them he admired the packs of frozen gems that the trees were holding rather precariously. He willed his stiff fingers to work.

Steve jolted as an abnormal amount of snow rained down on his head. Dusting snow from his hair he craned his head around to look at his partner. Danny stared at him wide-eyed, shrugging whilst letting go of the branch and dusting his hands off as if nothing had ever happened.

"You got hypothermia there, bud? You look a little crazy," Steve asked with a barely suppressed smirk.

"You're probably the one with hypothermia, not feeling cold anymore," Danny pointed at him. He leaned against the stump of a fallen tree, inhaling slowly a few times and coughing at the freezing burn it caused down in his lungs. "Crazy is a relative term at the moment. Crazy for following you out on a mountain road _during_ a snowstorm? Yes, definitely crazy for that one. Crazy for walking around for what, six hours out in predator infested woods? Check. Crazy from cold and elevation sickness that no sane person would live at? You bet."

"Ah, Danny, why didn't you say anything? We can stop," Steve pushed through the snow over to be nearer to his friend.

The air was crisp and snowflake filled. And incredibly thin compared to what they were used to. Danny watched as his breath turned into a cloud that hung in the sky for a while before dissipating. He felt lightheaded, his legs ached from walking, and he was still shivering in sporadic bursts. At least he was still registering the cold.

Steve stood completely still next to him, looking up at the sky. His face was rosy with the chill, hair speckled with big fluffy snowflakes. He breathed in with deep, calculated breaths and winced a little.

Something snapped off in the distance.

Danny stared in that general direction. He shivered for a different reason now. "What do you think that was?"

"A branch breaking," Steve answered, not voicing any other idea because the last thing he needed was an oxygen deprived panicking Danny.

"It could've been an animal," he said and stifled another cough. "Like a wolf or a bear, because I know they _do_ have _those_ in the Rockies."

"You always go straight to the worse possible case scenario, don't you?" Steve glanced down at him.

Danny shivered again, groaning as all his pains made themselves known. His knee was well and truly killing him. It was starting to swell and probably only starting to because it was mostly frozen, which could be a blessing in disguise. The frigid temperature had been like an icepack on it.

"Danny?" Steve asked, bending over to look him in the face.

"Steven, would you agree with me that this could be a worse possible case scenario right here? We're miles out from anywhere, we're at an insane elevation on a mountain, and there could be God knows what out in those trees," he listed off and wrapped his arms tighter around himself. "And I'm really damn cold!"

"I'm sorry, okay? I should've listened to you," Steve said, wondering if it was the cold that was making him feel numb or guilt at dragging his partner clear out here into the dense wilderness.

He put his arm around Danny's shoulders and pulled him close, feeling the shivers go through his body. He brushed the snow off the stump and eased down onto it with his friend still pressed against him. It was a testament to how bad off Danny really was when he made no protests at being hugged tight against his chest and instead buried his face into Steve's coat.

It was dark now. But still light. It was an eerie kind of light, enough to see by but still allowing for deep shadows to provide cover for anything that was stalking around in the woods. He just hoped that nothing else would show up, that maybe the snow would keep creatures in their burrows and dens.

"At least it's still snowing," Danny muttered lowly. "It'd be freezing if it wasn't."

Steve looked up at the tangled web of spruce and aspen tree tops. Beyond them the gray clouds hovered, still sprinkling over generous amounts of huge wet snowflakes. It was so quiet. Silence drug its heavy hand through the forest, dampening each and every noise. He couldn't have asked for a more peaceful place if he had wanted one.

Another snap pierced the tranquil atmosphere.

"Branch," Steve assured as he felt Danny tense under his arms.

In his mind he was starting to wonder if it actually was some animal moving through the woods, like an elk. They had both lost their guns in the mini avalanche hours earlier and though he was skilled enough to take out a boar with a knife he didn't know how he would handle a five hundred pound bull elk. He found a small comfort in the fact that usually elk were fairly docile and skittish of humans.

He should really see if they could get under one of the spruce trees where its broad boughs had kept the snow off the ground. They could bury themselves under the needles and if luck was with him he could possibly start a fire. As if that wouldn't attract unwanted attention from the local wildlife.

Steve opened his mouth to tell Danny his plan when he snapped it shut again at a new noise. A soft tinkling sound.

Danny stirred slightly. "You hear that too, right?"

"Yeah," Steve swiveled his head around, trying to pick out which direction the sound was emanating from. "It sounds like bells."

"Oh great," Danny mumbled and scooted closer to Steve. "Santa's coming to get us."

Steve made a face, but couldn't help agreeing that it almost sounded like jingle bells. It was light and quiet, but definitely there. And it was getting closer.

He did another sweep of the area and froze.

Not ten yards in front of him a canine figure stood in the snow, staring him down. It was gray and fluffy with triangular ears and stood stock still. Slowly its head cocked to the side, as if debating how best to take on two semi-frozen humans. He had seen wolves before, but never when he was in such a state of unpreparedness or frozenness.

Danny must've felt him tense up. He turned his head and caught sight of the wolf looking at them. A thousand words flew to his tongue, but he only chose three.

"Told you so."

Steve was ready to start packing snow to throw snowballs at it and make a lot of noise to try and scare it off when a sharp whistle startled them. The wolf jerked its head and stared the same direction before letting out a few rapid barks.

"Didn't know wolves barked," Danny said lowly.

The soft tinkling became more prominent as it seemed to change direction and come towards them. The wolfdog, because that's what it must've been, kept barking and wagging its tail as the jingling approached. A dark shadow snaked through the tree trunks, flanked by another wolfdog that broke rank and came bounding ahead.

Suddenly a flashlight caught them in its beam like two deer in headlights.

"You guys Danny and Steve?"

"Not Santa," Danny nearly laughed.

"Yeah, that's us," Steve replied, putting up his hand to cover his eyes.

The light turned off them onto the ground and illuminated the two wolfdogs that stood at attention in front of them. The jingling sound came closer. "You two managed to get yourselves lost pretty good."

Ah! The jingling sound was a horse with little bells tied on its bridle. It pulled up alongside them with a woman sitting in its saddle, rifle at rest across her lap. She dismounted and gave them the onceover before shaking her head.

"Are you hurt?" she asked.

"Bruised," Steve admitted.

"And frozen and I have a bad knee that's no longer cooperating and he's very possibly hypothermic," Danny added and then was rewarded with a bout of coughing for his efforts. He wheezed in a couple of breaths and pressed his knuckles to his temples. "And elevation sickness."

"Self-diagnosing. Never had that before," she flashed them a smile and gestured to her horse. "Good thing for you I decided to ride December out instead of walking. C'mon, get your butt up on him."

"How'd you know where we'd be?" Steve asked as he helped give his partner a boost up into the saddle.

"Your friends alerted the local police that you hadn't returned yet and they in turn alerted Search and Rescue," she said, gathering the reins and lifting them over the horse's scruffy head. She shifted her rifle to her other hand. "With the storm they couldn't get a helicopter up and the road you took in is only accessible by snowmobile as of three hours ago."

"So how'd you find us?" Danny asked. He rubbed one hand against the horse's thick neck, never so glad to see a beast of burden in his life. The saddle was warm, too, and his frozen rump appreciated that fact.

"I work Search and Rescue, and so when I got the radio call that there were two cops from _Hawaii_ lost in the woods in the middle of a _snowstorm_ and where your last known location had been, I saddled up," she patted December's nose and pushed aside his long forelock of mane. "Low and behold, I find you two walking the opposite direction of my cabin."

"Cabin?" Steve questioned. He didn't remember seeing a cabin or smoke from a stove. Then again, all throughout the day the snow and the clouds were sitting so low the smoke may have just blended into them.

"Knew we should've taken a left turn at Albuquerque," Danny clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth.

She glanced up at him and then back at Steve. "C'mon, before anything important freezes on you two."

"I can walk," Steve said.

"And December can carry two full grown guys that just trekked for half the day through deep snow. Up," she tipped her head to the horse.

With a sigh and no energy to argue Steve pulled himself up onto the horse behind the saddle. The woman spoke to the horse quietly and they started back the way she had come, the horse managing to plow through the snow without much trouble. As they jerked forward Steve shifted his hold on the back of the saddle to hesitantly bracing himself on Danny's shoulders.

The two wolfdogs bolted out ahead of them, yipping and growling at each other in play. They brawled with each other, knocking into trees and adding fine dustings of white powder to their pelts from the limbs full of snow.

"Can I ask a question?" Danny spoke up after a minute or two of quiet.

"Shoot," the woman said.

"What kinds of predatory animals are up here in this particular section of the Rockies, huh?" he asked, earning an unseen eye roll from Steve.

She hummed and rubbed the back of her neck with her gloved hand. "We got small stuff like bobcats and coyotes."

"See," Steve murmured.

"And then it moves up to bigger animals like mountain lions and a few packs of wolves. There's a large population of black bear and at least two breeding pairs of grizzlies in this particular chain of the Rockies. Against all odds, and I have never seen this before, there've been a couple reports of wolverine dipping down from the north. And then there're the herbivores that you have to watch out for with elk and moose being the worst offenders during rut or if there are calves nearby," she added as if it were an afterthought.

"See," Danny grumbled back at his partner. "Really? Elk are that dangerous?"

"More people are actually mauled by deer and elk in rut than are killed by bears," she nodded. "That's another reason Search and Rescue were a bit desperate to find you two."

"Which animal did we almost run into?" Danny asked quietly.

"All of them," she chuckled and then stopped seeing as no one else thought it was funny. She cleared her throat. "Bull moose that's been a bit aggressive towards people. These are his stomping grounds. We call him Bullwinkle."

"We heard branches breaking," Danny said. "Bullwinkle and Rocky battling it out with Natasha and Boris?"

She snorted in laughter. "Could've been him being a turd. More likely it was just wet tree limbs cracking under the weight of the snow."

"Explains why you have a rifle," Steve gestured to the gun she carried in a rest position.

"When you're by yourself, you don't have anyone to run faster than if something starts chasing you," she said and watched the two wolfdogs dart in front of them and away again. "Frick and Frack there would leave me behind, pair of dumbasses that they are."

Danny gave a light laugh that morphed into a cough. He settled down into the saddle and took in a few calming breaths. Steve patted his shoulder, wincing as the warmth from the horse started to make his legs ache as heat flooded back into them. He looked at the woman walking ahead of them.

"Thanks for coming and finding us on such an awesome looking night," Steve said as the snow continued to fall.

"Needed some fresh air," she replied amicably. "Name's Rain Crowe, by the way. We'll get you two warmed up and fed back at the cabin and I'll radio in to town. I'm sure your friends will be ecstatic I found you two with only minor damages."

Steve's stomach grumbled at the mention of food, but Danny beat him to the punch. "I am absolutely starved. I'm sure this Neanderthal could've survived off of a few leaves and pine needles, but I'm not a huge fan of rabbit food."

"Call me cliché or a hillbilly or whatever, but I've, uh, got a big pot of chili at home," Rain said. She held up a finger. "And whiskey."

Steve chuckled. He'd settle for some dry clothes. He patted his partner on the shoulder. "See, I told you we'd be fine."

"Why do you always take credit for random acts that wind up saving us, huh? You had nothing to do with this rescue," Danny objected.

"We still made it."

"Whatever, Steven. You're still a Neanderthal."

* * *

 **And after nearly three years of collecting dust, it's up! Thank you for reading! :)**


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